Focus

The new year is now 22 days gone.

68 days till Easter. 163 days till July 4. 337 days till Christmas. 344 are left in this year.

Time goes by pretty fast and I'm sure you are already thinking about an upcoming date this year. Maybe it is Valentine's Day or an anniversary. My daughter's birthday is just days, really hours, away.

As we focus on these points in time, other things slip up on us. We forget to make a call, forget to go somewhere, forget to meet someone, forget to pick something up. We lose focus.

This happens at work, at home, politically (I can't believe it! I know, right?), and yes, even at churches across this globe.

As for the church, our focus and our chase needs to be Christ. Anything else will distract and pull us away. We chase our rabbits and our squirrels to the point of forgetting what we are supposed to be chasing after.

But what is the church? The church is a community of individuals gathered together because of Christ. Maybe those individuals understand a phrase like "the sacrificial lamb who takes away our sins" or maybe they are individuals who just want to know how to live a better life (which is a great starting point!). If we lose our focus, if we lose sight of Jesus Christ, we have lost our direction, our way, and our effectiveness.

It is my prayer that we may find our focus and sustain it daily.

1 Corinthians 2:2 "For I decided to be concerned about nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified." (NET)

all about Christ,

David

Alienated Turtles and A Mutated Gospel

As a child I remember reading a couple issues of a black and white comic book about ninjas. Teenage ninjas. Teenage ninjas that were mutated turtles! It was awesome. Then there was a full color animated cartoon. It was awesome. Then a live action movie. It was awesome! Then more animated cartoons, different universes, two more live action movies, video games, and a CGI animated film. The story was roughly the same. Radioactive ooze turns pet turtles into ninjas. They learn ninjitsu from a mutant rat (like the turtles) who was once either a man or a rat (depending on the story line you follow) until he came into contact with the ooze. Ahh, the ooze.

Recently, Michael Bay, director of the Transformers movies (who has been hired to direct a new live action Ninja Turtles movie), made a statement about the upcoming movie. He said that the turtles would be aliens and people would love the story. ALIENS?!?

Fanboys across the world took to the interwebs and blogosphere in an outcry. The problem: The fans were excited about a new live action movie (the method of telling/retelling the story) but they were upset about the alien roots (the message, the origin, had been corrupted).

Today the church faces a very similar situation. When the virgin birth is denied or it's importance is limited, when preachers teach Christ is "just one of many ways" to heaven, or hell isn't as bad as some people say it is or it isn't even real, we have strayed greatly. As Christians, we should be just as outraged as "fanbois" all over the interwebs at Teenage Alien Ninja Turtles. As Christians, we have the greatest story ever told and we need to tell it again and again in as many different ways and venues as we can but we cannot change the story! With the greatest story comes the greatest responsibility. In other words, the Gospel's just too important to mess with.

God created us. Our sin separated us from God. We don't like that separation so we do anything we can to fill it, typically falling into more sin. God doesn't like that so He puts into motion a plan to deal with our sin. Enter Christ, God the Son, born of a virgin. Christ teaches us about living for God the Father. Christ dies for us to make a reunion with God the Father possible. Christ rises again to ensure us everything will be just as He said it would. Christ ascends to Heaven telling us He will come again to, once and for all, reunite us with God. God the Spirit works in us today, guiding, teaching, compelling us to turn from sin and receive Christ. Those who receive Christ receive Heaven. Those rejecting Christ receive Hell.

It's the greatest story ever told. It's not our story to mess with. Let me spur you to share it with someone today. Share your forgiveness!

all about Christ,
David

The Cost of Christmas

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Christmas is a mystery. Shoppers go to extremes to buy the perfect gift to show their love. Unfortunately, love often has a price tag. Many will buy low and attempt to "sell" it high when they give it. That's what Black Friday is all about. Buy the best/most expensive gifts at the lowest possible price. It makes us look like we give good gifts…when in fact, we are just cheap. Don't believe me? How do we react when a store has a price labeled or advertised wrong? It completely reverses the whole spirit of Christmas and the whole message of God's love for us through the gift of Christ.

You see, God gave us (presented) Christ at the lowest possible price. Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, born to an unwed, but engaged peasant. Born, then placed in a manger, an animal's food bowl. Don't forget, animals were not given fresh food, just baked for them. Animals received the scraps, left overs. Oh, and they aren't arranged on the plate so they aren't touching each other. Have you ever seen a bucket of scrap food before? The 8.6 lb baby Jesus was not wearing a golden fleece diaper (sorry Ricky Bobby) but instead, wrapped in scraps of cloth that did not smell like Tide or bleach. Scraps. If we saw a child in scraps of cloth today, what would we do? 

Isaiah 52:13-53:12 tells us that Christ will come and will not be regarded by men. He will be despised and rejected, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. (Please go back and read the whole text... seriously, I linked the text for you!)

Unlike our gifts, Christ was presented at the lowest possible price. Then when the time came, Christ paid the highest possible price. He gave His life.

1 John 3:1 tells us God has lavished His love on us. Just a few verses later John describes that love in 1 John 3:16 telling us that this is how we know what love is, that Christ laid down His life for us! 

This Christmas, my hope is that when we give gifts, we do so with love, not with price tags.

all about Christ,

David

*Picture taken from http://www.digitaltrends.com/guides/black-friday-survival-guide/

Christmas Lights

THINK…

Sunday afternoon we set up our Christmas tree in the Buckham house. The boys were most definitely drawn to the lights. My youngest (3) couldn't keep from touching the little Christmas lights. My oldest (6) turning the Christmas tree lights on (I believe that he has claimed this as his job this year). I admit it, there is a certain beauty found in those Christmas lights, but that is true with all light.

Light draws us to it. We can't help but notice it. There is an instinct to explore light. The magi came from the East following a light, the star that was announcing the birth of Christ in Matthew 2:2, 9-10. The light didn't leave Christ after His birth. In John 8:12 Jesus said He is the light of the world. He draws us to Him, just like a light, and it doesn't stop there. Christ said in Matthew 5:14 we are the light of the world. Christ brings a message of hope and light to
what can be a pretty dark world. He asks us to share that same message of light.

This Christmas we will see lights time and again, we will be drawn to them. It is my hope that when we see these lights we will stop and THINK about the significance of the true light of Christmas.

Post some of your Christmas light "reflections" below...

all about Christ,
David